Law and reality in publishing (seldom the same thing) from the author's side of the slush pile, with occasional forays into military affairs, censorship and the First Amendment, legal theory, and anything else that strikes me as interesting.

09 August 2008

The Hugo Awards

Congratulations to the (literary) Hugo and officially-not-a-Hugo recipients, announced earlier this evening.

Mary Robinette Kowal received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer... which marks the first time in quite a while that a sitting SFWA officer (she just began her term as Secretary a month ago) has won a Hugo. OK, it's officially not a Hugo, but it's still quite an accomplishment, and a disturbing indication of SFWA's historical inability to convince some of the right people to run for office.

Michael Chabon received the Best Novel Hugo for The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

Connie Willis received the Best Novella Hugo (17,50040,000 words) for "All Seated on the Ground."

Ted Chiang received the Best Novelette Hugo (7,50017,500 words) for "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate."

Elizabeth Bear received the Best Short Story Hugo for "Tideline."

Stephen Moffat (writer) and Hettie Macdonald (director) received the Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) Hugo for the episode "Blink" of Doctor Who.

Jane Goldman (writer) and Matthew Vaughn (writer and director) received the Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) Hugo for Stardust.

Congratulations to the winners. That means they won't get to go to the best party at WorldCon: the Hugo Losers' Party, from which the winners are ostentatiously excluded. They don't even get in if they lost in one category but won another...

And congratulations to Jay Lake for apparently not having the loudest Hawaiian print shirt of anyone up on stage... reports indicate that David Hartwell upstaged him, albeit without the Campbell Tiara.

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Blog Archive

Warped Weft

Now live at the new site. I have arranged some of the more infamous threads that have appeared here by unravelling them from the blawg tapestry (and hopefully eliminating some of the sillier typos). Sometimes, the threads have been slightly reordered for clarity.

Other Blawgs, Blogs, and Journals

These may be of interest; I do not necessarily agree with opinions expressed in them, although the reasoning and writing are almost always first-rate (and represent a standard seldom, if ever, achieved in "mainstream" journalism). I'm picky, and have eclectic tastes, so don't expect a comprehensive listing.

How Appealing is aimed at appellate lawyers and legal news in general. If you care about the state of the law, start here — Howard's commentary is far better balanced, better informed, and better considered than any of the media outlets. To concentrate on the US Supreme Court, don't forget SCOTUSBlog.

Some academics' blawgs with a variety of political (and doctrinal) viewpoints:

The main European IP blawg of interest remains the UK-based IPKat, on a variety of intellectual property issues, with some overlap (with a less Eurocentric view) at IPFinance

The American Constitution Society blawg is a purportedly "liberal" counterweight to the so-called "Federalist Society" (which, despite its claims, should be called "Tory Society") that has yet to establish much coherence... but maybe that's all to the good.

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